INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

3. PROFESSIONAL PREPARATIONS OF SPORT
MANAGERS
Managers need to demonstrate professional know-how and be
adequately prepared for the task. A sport manager must have been
directly or indirectly involved in active sport participation for him to
understand sport language. Sport management is not a free for all
profession, those in the vocation must be professionally qualified
academically and have full knowledge of sport activities. The need for
a sport manager to be competent cannot be over emphasized, because
the executive performance of sport organizations corresponds to the
competitive performance of the athletes. The manager must be ready
to study, participate in seminars and competitions so as to keep abreast
of latest development in his profession.
CONCLUSION
Athletes form the bedrock of any country’s sport development, as
no country can be great in sport without paying priority attention to
the management of her human resources through provision of
essential amenities. The athletes are the most important pivots in the
chain of sport participants. Most input by actors in sport are geared
towards assisting the athletes who would in turn bring glory and
honour to their fatherland by achieving success optimally both in
tangible and intangible terms. Quality of training and the input of the
athletes would to a large extent be determined by the quality and
adequacy of sport managers. Therefore, sport management serves as
the bedrock for sport development in virtually all nations because this
is the aspect that is responsible for the smooth running of various
sports in terms of planning, organizing, directing and controlling all
essentials inputs in sports. Athletes and coaches level of performance
depends largely on the co-operation effectiveness and efficiency of the
sport manager in attending promptly to their needs.
Efficient and effective sport manager becomes inevitable for the
improvement of performances of athletes and coaches at the
Olympics.
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